Sangamon County Jail struggles with overcrowding

While overcrowding continues to be a problem at the Sangamon County Jail, officials say there are no plans on the table to expand the existing jail or build a new facility.

WITH SIDEBAR

John Reynolds

While overcrowding continues to be a problem at the Sangamon County Jail, officials say there are no plans on the table to expand the existing jail or build a new facility.

Instead, they have implemented a variety of measures to reduce the daily jail population and have hired a consultant to advise them on possible long-term solutions.

“The goal of this study is not construction. Our goal is the proper management of the jail population,” said Sangamon County Administrator Ryan McCrady. “If we find out we’ve done everything we can and we still have to expand the jail, then at that point, we will look at construction. But that is a last resort.”

Overcrowding has been a recurring problem at the county jail over the past few years. The jail was built to hold 314 inmates, but in August of 2006, the average number of inmates in the jail was 422.

A few years ago, people from the jail, sheriff’s office, state’s attorney’s office, the courts, the probation department, the public defender’s office and McCrady’s office began meeting to see if they could alleviate the problem.

McCrady said they have had some success.

“We’ve tried to take a look at people who are in the jail awaiting trial and can’t make their bond,” McCrady said. “We look at their cases more closely and review their criminal history to see if they are a candidate for bond reduction to help them get out, or to see if they are a candidate for home monitoring.”

So far, the efforts seem to be working. Figures from the county indicate that through August of this year, the average population of the county jail has been the same or lower when compared to the same time period last year.

In August of 2007, for example, the average number of inmates was 374 as opposed to the August 2006 number of 422.

However, 374 is still well above 314 inmates, the jail’s official capacity.

To get the number even lower, the county has hired MGT of America, a group of consultants, to examine the criminal justice system in Sangamon County. The group is looking at several county offices connected to the criminal justice system and is expected to release its report next month.

“They’ve been interviewing all of the stakeholders. They’ve also been interviewing people outside the county, like the U.S. Marshals Service, who house federal inmates here,” McCrady said

The county is paying MGT about $68,000.

“When they bring back a report, they will say things like, if you make change A, we project you will see X impact on your jail population. If you do B, you would expect this impact,” McCrady said.

One of the people contacted by MGT was Springfield defense attorney Jon Noll. In an interview with The State Journal-Register, Noll agreed that prosecutors, defense attorneys and the court system can affect the jail population.

“The courts are really the engine that pulls the train,” Noll said. “To a large degree, the jail personnel are at the mercy of defense attorneys, the state’s attorneys and the court system.”

One suggestion Noll had dealt with people accused of misdemeanors who may not have enough money to make bail.

“Let’s say you have a misdemeanor offense and a guy can’t post a $500 bond. You know his sentence is going to be, probably, just 30 days anyway if he’s found guilty,” Noll said. “What I’ve seen some jurisdictions do is, after 10 or 15 days, they pull (the guy) back in, and they will automatically lower his bond because they know he’s already done about half of his sentence anyway.”

Factors that have contributed to the larger jail population include mandatory sentences for some non-felonies and growth of Sangamon County’s population in general.

“The other thing to consider is that we could be a victim of our own success,” McCrady said. “The sheriff started the DIRT (drug) team back in 2004. They’ve made I think, thousands of arrests since then, and a lot of those people ended up in jail.”

One of the recommendations in the MGT report could be to expand the jail or build a new facility. McCrady estimated the cost of a new jail at $40 million and said the county would have to go to the taxpayers to raise such an amount.

With recent projects such as the juvenile detention center, the new 911 building and the renovated Office of Emergency Management facility, the county has not had to ask the public for a tax increase.

“Expanding the jail would be a huge project, and we don’t think it would be fair to go back to the taxpayers unless we prove that we’ve done everything in our power to prevent having to do that,” McCrady said.

Sangamon County Board member Andy Goleman, chairman of the finance committee, agrees.

“The last possibility that we would look at would be to build a new facility,” Goleman said.

John Reynolds can be reached at (217) 788-1524 or john.reynolds@sj-r.com.

SIDEBAR

Earlier this month, Springfield resident Gary Brady turned himself in at the Sangamon County Jail to begin a 10-day sentence for driving under the influence.

What happened next depends on who is telling the story.

Grady, 43, says he was crammed into a booking cell for several days that had urine and feces on the floor, and that he also witnessed guards torment a mentally ill woman.

Officials at the county jail dispute Grady’s account and are standing behind the correctional officers.

Grady admits that when he arrived at the jail Oct. 5, a Friday, he did not expect to get a five-star room. The accommodations he did get, however, were a bit of a shock.

Four men were put into one cell, and there was just enough room on the floor for each person’s mattress. While Grady said the mattress was dirty, county officials say the mattresses are regularly sanitized. Grady said he spent about five days in the cramped cell, during which time he didn’t have a shower and was forced to wear the same clothes.

“The air vents on the ceiling (in the cell) were covered with mold and mildew. They also had toilet paper with excrement and other body fluids of all types hanging from them,” Grady said.

Grady said the cell inmates asked jail officials for cleaning materials, but were turned down.

Terry Durr, administrator of the county jail, said the holding area cells are cleaned every Monday through Friday, except when Monday falls on a holiday.

Grady was in the jail over the Columbus Day weekend, but Durr said Grady’s cell was not in the condition he described.

Also, Durr said jail records indicate Grady was moved from the booking area Oct. 8, which was three days after he arrived.

“We don’t like it, but it’s something that happens,” Durr said of keeping some inmates in holding cells that long.

The booking area is on the ground floor of the jail. It consists of a large room with a control center in the middle. Cells are along the perimeter of the room. Each cell door has a window so that some inmates can see the control center or possibly other cells.

While in the booking area, Grady said he could see into one cell that housed a woman who had obvious mental problems. The woman would expose her breasts and other parts of her anatomy, and she would also run around her cell and bite herself.

“The guards were taunting her. As soon as the supervisor would go around the (corner) and go do something … they would taunt her,” Grady said.

A man who was in the county jail at the same time as Grady confirmed Grady’s account of the unsanitary conditions and the taunting of the woman. The other inmate declined to be identified.

Durr said there was a woman in the holding area who was a patient at a mental facility, but he denied that guards taunted her. He said the guards were trying to calm the her down.

“If we have complaints about people taunting anybody, we investigate it. But I don’t believe our officers were taunting this woman to make her do any of the activity she was doing,” Durr said.

Grady also said he could see the computer screens of workers at the control area. Some people checked their MySpace accounts, and one woman downloaded music, he said.

Durr said jail officials are looking into the report of improper use of county computers.

Once he was moved into general population, Grady said, his stay was easier. He could walk around, take a shower, and, after six days, brush his teeth, he said.

“That was really nice. The things I’ve taken for granted in life, I don’t any more,” Grady said.

Grady wrote a letter about his experience and sent copies to Williamson, Durr and the health department, as well as to The State Journal-Register. Although the letter outlined the problems Grady said he experienced, he also praised several guards who went out of their way to treat inmates humanely.

When it comes to some of the other guards, however, Grady said they should lose their jobs.

“Honestly, I would like to see a large amount of people who don’t take their job seriously lose their jobs,” he said. “I don’t think they know what having a job and being respectful (is about).”

Except for the allegations about computer abuse, Durr and Sheriff Neil Williamson are standing behind the employees at the jail.

“We have 14,000 people a year come through the jail, and we get maybe a dozen complaints about the condition of the jail,” Williamson said. “I’ll be the first to say, it’s not the Renaissance (hotel). It’s the county jail. We do the absolute best we can. We clean it, and we give them the necessary bedding and equipment and showers.”

Durr added that guards are instructed to treat people in he jail with dignity and respect.

“If we have a complaint that’s substantiated, we take action,” Durr said.

John Reynolds can be reached at (217) 788-1524 or john.reynolds@sj-r.com.